Revisiting FSAs and CSAs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ghanaian Firms

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is widely perceived as a region of countries with low technological capabilities, weak complementary assets competing on basic country specific advantages (CSAs) and relying on transferred technology. In this paper we argue against this perception. Integrating the extended concepts of Location Bound (LB) and Non-Location Bound (NLB) Firm Specific Advantages (FSAs) within a “revisited” CSAs/FSAs matrix, we provide evidence that home-market grown LB-FSAs and their transformation to NLB-FSAs are induced by domestic Ghanaian firms’ strategic and export orientation.